Site icon Katie Kortman

Watercolor Painting on Jersey Fabric

Did you see this on my Instagram feed last weekend? I was so excited to share this Adrienne Blouse with you all that I had to share it not once, but twice in the span of a few hours!! HA!

But really….. it is like wearing a watercolor! Those sleeves are unreal and I love the effect the paint has as it bleeds into the fabric.

So, are you ready to find out how YOU can do something similar? Good, let’s do this thing.

MATERIALS:

Cotton Jersey Knit Fabric

Jacquard Fabric Paint (or other fabric paint!)

Brushes, water cup, palette

**Before Starting: Pre-cut your pattern pieces out if possible. Jersey likes to move and if you have smaller pieces to deal with, it will be less frustrating!

Step 1: Using LOTS of water and some paint on your brush, you will start to apply the paint to the fabric. Some areas I would apply the paint and then quickly go on top of it with a water-filled brush, rubbing it in to make a it bleed.

Another method you can use is to spray the fabric with water first, so that any paint you apply to the fabric will instantly bleed. When making a “watercolor” YOU WANT IT TO BLEED!!! That’s what makes it so beautiful!!

**The green photos show what it looked like while still wet, vs what happened when it had dried. you can see that most of the darker splotches eventually soaked in, and it lightened overall.

On the top photo you see that I left some areas more saturated with color and others more watered down. I also intentionally left white space. You don’t have to do that, you can watercolor every inch if you feel so inclined!

Step 2: After the pieces have dried, you can add a secondary design. I chose to do simple dashes, but you can do lots of things! I would test it out first on a sample swatch.

Here is something that I didn’t think of until I sewed the shirt and put it on my body…… Make sure the pattern continues in a similar way on the sides that will be sewn together! I left half of the back white and when sewn to the back it created a sharp white line down the side!

If you’re wondering why I ‘m not smiling in these photos….. let’s say they were taken after a looooong battle (tantrum?) with one of my children over homework…. It was hard to muster a grin with how I actually felt at that moment!! haha.

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